NPPF Canto Two: Shade reflects

[jbor]

on 29/7/03 2:29 AM, David Morris wrote:

> Just following this dramatic announcement Shade abruptly (at line 181!) breaks
> the poem’s tone and time.  He ZOOMS to the present and to the mundane task of
> trimming his nails.

Only just catching up with the Canto Two stuff and rereading. Excellent
notes by the way, David; thanks. I think that Shade's self-consciousness
about composing in the present time permeates the poem from the outset. The
initial image in Canto One is framed in the past tense, as I think you
noted. As Shade looks out his bedroom window he recalls this incident with
the bird flying into the pane and now, in the present time of the poem's
composition, retrospectively appropriates the incident to circumscribe his
own life experience in its totality. It might be interesting to predict what
the moment of the bird's collison with the glass was for Shade -- I suspect
that Hazel's death is a contender, but there are other possibilities too,
such as his heart attack, or his first youthful seizure.

As the Canto proceeds it's as if he has walked out into the garden and down
to the lake (eg. "whilst now" line 43, "[i]t is now" line 54 etc), following
the familiar paths of his youth, almost as a deliberate stimulus to the
poetic composition. Hazel's swing is a "phantom" (57): he remembers the
place where it once was, but it is no longer there. Back indoors he walks
from room to room in the house and similarly allows the scenes and rooms to
evoke the memories and people of his youth, and uses these memories to
prompt his current, poetic interpretations and reflections.

best